The Lost Ones
by almbookbuyer
Summary: Fifteen years ago, River Song left her child, Renee Amelia Song, with her parents while she went on an expedition and didn't come back. Now, Renee finds her father, and they must attempt to save River from The Library.
1. Prologue

**a/n: I am writing this fic with randomgirl1385. She's plotting with me and editing the chapters.**

**Disclaimer: We do not own Doctor Who.**

Prologue

Fifteen Years Ago

River Song bounced from one foot to the other, holding the blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. The baby was sleeping, but she still bounced her in a steady rhythm. She'd waited too long already. The expedition was starting this afternoon.

She cradled the baby's head in one hand. Her skin was smooth. She'd come out completely bald, and River wanted so badly to find out what color her hair would be. She'd just have to come home.

Renee Amelia Song. River never wanted to put her down. Handing her to the woman at the daycare center before teaching her classes each day of this past semester was hard enough. This though?

They had told her the expedition would be dangerous. They gave her the option to stay back, knowing her to be living alone with her young daughter, but she couldn't refuse. It was dangerous, life threatening maybe. That was the exact reason why she had to go. It was in those places that The Doctor came.

Renee opened her eyes a little with a groan of frustration at being woken from her nap. River smiled down at her. "Hi, baby. Hi my lovely." The baby smiled lazily up at her mother, and River couldn't help but stroke her head again. "Oh, I love you. I love you so much..."

She kissed the baby on her forehead and put the coordinates to her mother and dad's house into the vortex manipulator. She'd have to hold tight to Renee through the Vortex. She didn't want to take her this way, but she wasn't going to trust her baby to just anybody. especially not if she was heading into an unsure situation.

She pulled Renee up to rest vertically on her chest, the child's tiny fingers curling around the nearby wisps of her hair. She pressed the button.

The baby cried. River could feel it as they went through the vortex, but she couldn't hear it over the wind in her ears. She cradled her as close as possible without hurting her and repeated again and again, "It's okay. It's okay, darling."

When they appeared in front of the little house in 1951, a month after her last visit, River found her footing instantly, well practiced. Renee's frantic breaths and shakes became audible as soon as the wind left, and River started to bounce her again. "Shh... Shh... You're okay, my little one... Shh..."

Renee calmed down in a short time, and River went to the door. She never knocked, just went in, but today she decided she should.

Amy opened the door mid-sentence, still turned inside. "-because it's almost dinner."

"But Mummy," the little boy called from the other room. "Please? One cookie?"

She turned back to the door. "Oh! River? Why did you knock?" She seemed to notice the bundle then and her surprise turned to shock. "Who's this little one?"

River smiled at her baby again. This would be Amy and Rory's first time meeting their granddaughter. "This is Renee Amelia."

Amy shook her head, a cheeky smile spread wide on her face. "You named her after me?"

"I named her after my best friend, like you did. I just happen to know my relation to my best friend."

The little boy appeared in the doorway carting a stuffed dinosaur. "River!"

River bent down to be at eye level with Anthony. "Hi, buddy. Wow! You've grown since I last saw you!"

"I'm five now," he alerted her. "You didn't come to my birthday party."

She frowned and looked up at Amy with concern. Amy was already taking Anthony by the hand. "I told you. River was busy during your birthday party. She's here now."

"Yep, and I brought your niece. Do you want to see her?"

He started jumping up and down. "Yes! Yes please! Can I hold her?"

River stood up again as she answered him. "Of course you can. You have to sit on the couch though."

He ran into the house, and Amy held the door open so River could follow him. When the door shut, Amy called out, "Rory, River's here with news."

Rory came down the stairs within seconds. "Oh god, what now?" He saw the baby then, like Amy, looked shocked. "Oh my god."

Anthony was squirming on a couch cushion. "I'm ready! Can I hold her now? What's her name? Is she gonna live here? Can we keep her? Mummy, I want to keep the baby!"

River laughed and knelt down in front of her tiny, adopted brother. "You have to be careful when your holding a baby, Anthony. Do you know that?"

He nodded. "Yep. Cause I held Annabella." River had forgotten that the neighbor had been pregnant. She assumed this must be the name of the new baby.

"Okay, so you know how to hold a baby?"

"Yep." Then he frowned. "But can you tell me again?"

She laughed. "Yes of course."

She helped him to hold Renee correctly, positioning the two together so they were both mostly comfortable. "There. Her name is Renee."

He leaned close to her face and tilted his head to see her's straight. "Hi Renee. Hi. I'm your brother."

River laughed again. "No, silly. Your her uncle."

"Uncle? But I'm a kid." He sounded unsure.

"You are, but you're also an uncle.'

He giggled and kissed Renee's nose. "I'm your Uncle Tony. I think you're cute."

"Rory," Amy said, behind River. "Watch the kids. River and I are going to talk in the other room for a minute."

"I don't get to-" He cut himself off with a sigh. "Okay."

River stood and followed her mother into the dining room without argument. She knew she was going to get questioned. "Does The Doctor know?"

"No. I'm going to tell him soon. I haven't seen him in a long time. Not since Darillium."

"Is that when this happened?"

"No. I found out the next morning."

"How old is she?" Amy's voice was slowly transforming from stern to excited. She wanted to sound mad, but she just couldn't keep it up. "Why haven't you brought her here before?"

"She's four months old, and I didn't want to bring her today. The Vortex can be dangerous for such a young child."

She realized what that meant. "You had a reason for coming."

River nodded. "I have to go on an archeology expedition. I can't get out of it. It'll only be a few days, but I didn't want to leave her with a daycare for that long, and I don't know anyone well enough to trust them with my child there."

"You only brought her because you needed a sitter?" The hurt in her voice wasn't feigned this time.

"I didn't want to bring her into the Vortex. She hated it. She was terrified. I knew she would be."

"Is this your first expedition?"

River didn't want to lie, but if she said no, she'd have to explain that this was the first dangerous one. They had no idea what they'd be walking into. She prepared herself to say yes, but it wasn't what came out of her mouth. "No. I've been on others."

Rory would never catch on with such a small clue, but Amy couldn't miss it. Her face softened instantly. "Be careful, River."

"I know. I will be."

"I mean it."

"So do I. I would never leave her alone. I know what that feels like. I can't do it."

Amy pulled River into a hug before she could pull away. "River -Melody, I'm sorry..."

She pulled away. "I didn't mean to make you feel guilty. It wasn't your fault or anything. It's just a fact. It happened."

Amy nodded. "You could stay here. We have a guest room: blue walls, a nice bed. The door locks."

"Thanks, but really, I'm fine. I'll be back in a few days. Earliest I'd dare is tomorrow. She shouldn't have gone in the Vortex once, let alone twice in one day."

"River?" Anthony called. River hurried into the den where Rory was lifting his crying granddaughter from her uncle's lap, murmuring to her to shush.

"Can I take her?" River practically begged. "She probably just wants to be bounced."

He handed her over and she bounced a little. Renee stared at her. They had the same eyes. She hadn't known what her daughter would look like. She didn't know how it worked with regeneration. If every regeneration's appearance was factored in, she could have had any number of traits.

"No, no, no," she scolded lightly. "No more tears, my lovely. No more. Shh..."

Slowly, she calmed, and River handed her over to Amy, who immediately brightened. "Hi! Hi, Renee. Such a pretty name for such a pretty baby."

"It means rebirth," River told her. She'd quite liked that when she was scouring the name databases. Plus, it worked well with Amelia Song, which she wanted to be the child's second and last names.

"Rory," Amy said, "Rory, love-"

"Oh no. What?"

Cross at the expectation of negatives, she snapped, "I agreed we'd sit Renee for a while, I hope that's okay."

He looked unsure about the development but nodded anyway. "Of course. How long?"

"Not too long," Amy said before River could break the news. She gave her daughter a look as if to say _run before he figures it out_.

"So she _is _living with us?" Anthony shouted, excited. He hopped around River's feet.

"For a little while. Yeah. I'll be back real soon. Oh yeah, and happy birthday. I'll bring you your present when I come back. I forgot it this time."

"Okay!"

"Bye, bye, buddy."

"Bye, bye." He hugged her like he always did, and she squeezed him back. She hugged Amy and Rory, and finally kissed Renee on her forehead once more. "Goodbye, baby. I'll be back for you. Promise. I love you."

River went out the front door before using her vortex manipulator. Amy and Rory were trying to shelter Anthony from the time travel world, at least for now, and they didn't want him to see her doing things like that yet.

The trip felt even longer this time, which was surprising considering the last. She spent the whole of it wishing that she had her baby in her arms.

She reappeared in her classroom with her arms cupped as if holding an invisible child and her eyes burning with unshed tears. She'd never been so nervous to do something so dangerous. She'd always loved danger but not today.

"Professor Song?" said a pretty woman with long, dark hair, poking her head into the room. River had forgotten her name. "The team is almost ready to leave."

"I'm coming," she promised and went to her desk. "Just one moment, please."

"They said you have ten minutes," she pointed out. "I just wanted to let you know."

"Thank you." She sat down and pulled a small pad of paper from the corner. She'd been using it to bookmark certain events in her diary, but she was about to use it for something more important. She knew how to get it to the psychic paper. She'd tried once before, and gotten it in the right place, slightly wrong time but that was to be expected. There was so much time to sift through. It was hard to be perfectly accurate.

_The library_

_Come as soon as you can x_

**We hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a comment or critique. They're greatly appreciated. **New chapters coming soon!****


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We do not own Doctor Who or The Red Death**

**Also, neither of us speak Latin (We used Google Translate), so if any mistakes have been made, please tell us in a comment.**

Chapter One

"Have you ever read _The Red Death_? It's by Edgar Allen Poe. That's me." Renee was writing in her diary as she did every day. "Not the not horror part, the part about the story itself. At midnight, this man starts wandering around the ball. He has the plague, and he's going to infect everyone. Everyone panics, and thinks the man is some evil demon, or some monster. He probably doesn't mean to kill everyone. He's just looking for help. Like I said, that's me. I might not be a demon, but my classmates are certainly scared of me. In fact, one kid is staring at me from the end of the shelf right now."

She looked up from her perch on the stool. The kid had to be a freshmen. He was too scrawny to be any older than fourteen. "Do you need a book from over here? Do you need the stool?" He _was_ short.

The boy shook his head and scurried away. She sighed and turned back to her journal. "It's really quite tiring, being the scary one. Amy says I'm like my mother, but I don't think I want to be. I mean, she did die when I was a baby, and Amy and Rory still don't know how. Either that, or they just didn't want to tell me."

Taking a quick glance around, she pulled her iPhone from her pocket and started scrolling through her pictures, trying to find the right one.

The photo was blurry, a zoomed in picture of a crowd at some sort of political event she'd forgotten the significance of. Amy had recognized the couple immediately. She said she "couldn't miss them! Not with that hair and that bow tie."

The expressions on the couple's face weren't visible due to the blur, but Amy couldn't be wrong. Who else fit the description? Renee had the same curls as her mother, but her hair was dark like her father's. The Doctor wore a bright red bow tie, and River Song wore a dress that was probably a little too low cut. Amy told Renee that was very "like her".

She heard footsteps and quickly locked and put away the iPhone. This was 1966. No one could see her with that.

Another boy came around the corner and started looking for a book at the end of the shelf. Renee watched him. It seemed he hadn't noticed her yet. If he had, he'd likely make a hasty retreat. Everyone did. It was understandable. She'd always been known as crazy, ever since she got mad at Samantha V. in first grade and threatened to stab her with that fork at snack time.

She liked it when people were this close to her, but the only person in her school who did it on purpose was Annabella, her best friend. When others did it by mistake, she found herself fixated on them. It wasn't in a creepy way. She wasn't obsessed with people. It was more in their movements. She liked to observe and guess what they acted like around people they actually liked.

He looked up at her, likely feeling the eyes on him, and noticed who he'd been standing near for so long.

"Oh. Oh, I- Hi, Renee. I'm just- I'm- I didn't know you read. Do you read a lot? I'm just looking for a book on, um... I forgot. I'll just go." He backed up. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'll just- Bye!"

She sighed and turned back to her journal again. "I just scared a few kids. I didn't even try. Maybe it's because I'm holding a pencil."

* * *

><p>After convincing her grandparents she was going to bed for the night, Renee closed and locked her bedroom door. As Rory kept insisting, it technically wasn't her's. It was the guest room that she was temporarily staying in, but she said he needed to be honest with himself. Her mother wasn't coming back, and -apparently- neither was her father.<p>

She pulled her mother's vortex manipulator out from under her pillow and set some random coordinates. She didn't really care where she went. She just liked getting away.

The hard part about these trips was the way it made her feel to go through what Amy explained was called The Time Vortex. It made her stomach churn, and the wind that rushing through her ears made them ring when she appeared in quiet places. This time, the second did not get a chance to happen.

She appeared in the middle of a battle.

Sight was the first sensation to come to her; all she could see was smoke and fire. Then came taste; horrible metallic, it lingered in the smoke and felt thick in her mouth. The sounds came next: loud booming cannons, sharp automatics, and screaming. She hated to come during screaming.

She was in the middle of a battle field, and she had no idea what to do., so she ran. She covered her ears to block out some of the ear splitting sounds, she picked a direction, and she ran.

The smoke burned her throat and eyes, and she blinked to keep them open. Renee coughed into her elbow and breathed into her sleeve.

Something started to come into view, though she wasn't sure what. It was massive: tall and looming.

Then she realized it was a cannon, and a twisted face full of suckers and beady, impossibly blue eyes met hers.

She'd met a thousand creatures in her travels, but the hatred that poured off this man with his sweat, or goo, terrified her. This man was armed, and the cannon was facing her way, mere feet from her narrow frame.

He screamed at her in a language she didn't recognize and she quickly moved out of the way.

Not sure where she was going, she went around the man with the cannon and ran in the direction opposite to where it was pointing, hoping that would lead her away from the violence. She would just transport back to her room, but the manipulator had yet to charge. It needed a half hour.

The smoke was starting to thin out. She was surprised that she only came across that one armed man. The next place she came along was a group of wounded being tended for by a crowd that she did recognize. They seemed to be everywhere in the future, the cats.

"Madame," Renee said in a slightly hoarse voice, approaching one of the cats. She knew they likely spoke English. If not, French was a good chance too. Those were two of the five human languages Renee spoke fluently, the other three being Portuguese, Spanish and Latin. Of course, Latin was a dead language now, but it wasn't always, and a lot of other human languages stem from it. When it came down to nonhuman languages, she spoke a limited number of them. She spoke a few of the bigger ones and could recognize and get by with a few others, but she'd honestly struggled learning the languages that weren't able to be translated with Google.

"Miss Song?" The cat turned around with a small smile on her feline face. The two girls embraced.

"Kree! Since when do you nurse soldiers?" Renee pulled away and turned to the soldier she was helping. "What race are they?"

"Lactentem spineta lacertos," she said without missing a beat.

Sucking lizards. Yes, that described them well. Kree quickly went back to helping the man in front of her. She said something in a language Renee recognized, upon further thinking, as Acerbus. In Latin, _acerbus_ means something sour and harsh. It fit the tongue well. "Where are we? When are we?"

"You and your games," Kree teased. "It's 6347. You're on Ac. Funny name, isn't it? And. You're on And." Kree, like Renee, knew much of the Latin language. Kree learned it from studying it in books, so she was quite happy when she found out Renee knew it well. She'd never spoken it before. She'd said, "It's a dead language. You don't speak it."

"Of course you speak it!" Renee had argued. "It's a language! What's the point of knowing a language if you don't speak it?"

With the man bandaged, Kree took Renee by her arm and towed her over to where the supplies were stored in a truck painted gray and orange to match the orange ground. The ground itself hadn't seemed strange when she'd first seen it, but military vehicles at home were similar in shape, and the difference in camouflage seemed very odd on such a normal thing. "Come," she said. "Get in the jeep. It is safer than out here. We'll talk at the base."

"Okay," she said, happy to comply to her friend. She and Kree knew each other almost as well as she knew Annabella, and that was saying something. They trusted each other. She climbed into the jeep and Kree ran off.

There was one other person in the car with them, a cat. She was sitting curled up on the seat with her head on the window. Her right sleeve was stained dark red.

"Hey," Renee said, concerned. "Are you okay?"

The cat lifted her head to look at the thin, human girl with the green eyes and the thin, red sweater on. "I will be later, yes. The soldiers must be treated first. I am unimportant." Renee disagreed with that.

"What's your name?" Renee asked. She thought the nurses were very important, but she knew she wouldn't win that argument, as much as she wanted to try.

"Valeria."

"I'm Renee."

They sat in silence for a while. Though the sounds outside were far from being silenced by the thick mobile that surrounded them, it seemed very quiet in the car.

"Why are you here, Renee?"

"I kind of just stumbled into the mess. I'm not even really sure what the fight is about... if you'd care to tell me."

She shook her head a little. "Are you waiting here because you have a head injury?"

"No. I honestly just want to know what they are fighting about."

She waved her left hand halfheartedly. "Does it matter? War is useless in the end."

Renee nodded in agreement. This was true. War was generally just a lot of death with little gain. "No, it probably doesn't, but I still don't know."

She sighed. "The lizards and the wolves are always fighting. We came to end the never ending war, and it's yet to work."

"Yeah. That's hard. I wonder if I could help?"

"You? Who are you to help?"

She shrugged. "I'm here and I'm willing. I guess it matters what I need to do."

The two were silent again. Then, someone got in the front seat, and turned the jeep on. Valeria and Renee both looked up with surprise. Judging from the noise outside, the battle was far from over.

Renee leaned forward to see that it wasn't a cat driving, but a sucking lizard. She turned to Valeria helplessly and said, "I don't speak Acerbus."

"I speak a good amount." She shifted forward in her seat and said something in a tongue Renee couldn't understand. The soldier answered in the same language, and Valeria briskly turned to the window, speaking in a frantic tone.

"What is it?" Renee asked. The lizard said something again, likely in response to what Valeria was saying, and from the tone of their voices, they seemed to be arguing. Renee put _learn Acerbus _on her mental to do list. "Valeria, what is he saying?"

"We're leaving," she said simply.

"Why? The battle isn't over."

"It's about to be."

A voice over the radio said something in Acerbus, and then what Renee assumed was it's English translation. "All units prepare for release."

"Release?" Renee hated not knowing more than she hated being ostracized. "What does that mean?"

"They're going to gas the field."

"What?" Renee turned to the window. She could see little through the smoke, but the group of nurses and wounded were still vaguely visible. "Are they going to evacuate?"

"Only the higher powers. They can't risk the news getting to the other side before they release. We're lucky, I suppose."

"Lucky? What about Kree?" Renee tried to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. The lizard said something from the front she couldn't understand, and she demanded, "Tell him to let me out!"

Valeria looked shocked. "Let you out? Why?"

"I need to get Kree!"

"You'll _die_. I understand, I do. I want to save everyone, but we can't."

The radio said something else in Acerbus, and she knew what the translation would be before it was said. "Releasing at 00."

She looked at the clock. It was four fifty-nine. Renee tried the button to roll down the window, but it didn't work. She wanted some way to warn them, but there was none.

"Kree!" she screamed at the glass, knowing well that it was sound proof. "Kree, get out of there!"

Acerbus burst from the radio followed by a single English word. "Released."

It took half a second for the guns to stop and the screaming to double. It must be painful, torturous, whatever they used.

"Bless them," Valeria said. Renee was going to say something to her, to tell her they could have warned them, but she was right. There was no way it could have helped. They would have just died themselves.

Her vortex manipulator buzzed on her wrist. She could leave, but she couldn't now. Kree was dead, and she couldn't just go home.

"What is this war about?" Renee asked again. "Why did she die? Please tell me it's for something at least slightly worth it."

"She may not be dead yet." But Valeria looked sad, and Renee knew perfectly well that, though she may be right, it wouldn't be long.

"Tell me."

"I don't know. They probably don't even know."

"Can you ask him?"

She nodded and shifted forward again. The language of the lizards sounded even more sour knowing what had just happened. He answered as the sound of screaming started to quiet.

Valeria translated. "He says, 'The Lord is captured'."

"The Lord?"

She lay her head on the back of the seat. "It must be one of their leaders, though I've certainly never heard of him."

"Ask who he is."

"We just witnessed the death of hundreds of people, and you only now want to know the motive?"

She took a breath. She wanted so badly to ask the man herself. This was taking too long. "Please."

"Fine." She asked, and he gave his answer straightaway. "He says a doctor."

"A doctor or The Doctor?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes! They mean two very different things!"

"The Doctor."

She turned to the front, momentarily forgetting that their driver didn't know English. "Take us to him. Take us to the Doctor."

It was time Renee met her father.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: We do not own Doctor Who.**

Chapter Two

It took a lot of effort not to immediately find The Doctor when they got back to the base. Renee thought that there had to be some way to fix what had just happened. She thought, maybe, if there wasn't, she'd at least be able to say she knew her father. Lives would be lost, but something would be fixed. According to Amy, she had never met him, not even when she was a baby.

Instead, she helped get Valeria medical assistance, since the blood loss had made her dizzy, and she couldn't do it on her own.

She also asked if there was any way Kree could have gotten out.

"They may have been prepared," one feline told her. "They may have had gas masks."

"They may have? Do you think they actually did?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she insisted Renee go. "Why are you here in the first place? How did you get here?"

It was hard to remember that being part human and part Time Lord was strange here. "If you're not going to answer me, do you know where The Doctor is?"

"The Doctor?" Her eyes widened and she ushered Renee aside. The cat lowered her voice. "Doctor who?"

Renee grinned. "Exactly."

"He's here?"

Renee nodded. "Somewhere. That's what this war is about. He's trapped."

"Wait here. I'll find out where he is. If I contact him, who may I say is asking?"

"Someone very important to him." She hoped that was true.

The feline rushed off, and Renee observed as the chaotic arrival of the few survivors died down. Valeria was being treated nearby, and Renee watched to make sure she was well taken care of. She knew Valeria would be okay, though. Kree, on the other hand-

She couldn't think about Kree. She'd start to cry, and if she started to cry, she wouldn't stop, and she would no longer be the power in the room. She would be vulnerable, and there is always someone nearby to take advantage of vulnerability.

"Madame?" The cat startled Renee. She turned quickly to face her, masking the fright and surprise on her face with a mastery only achieved by years of practice.

"Yeah?"

"I know where he is."

Renee followed her down a long and tall, echoing hallway. The floors and walls were metal. Every step she took echoed around her, berating her from all sides. She was afraid to speak. Their footsteps were loud enough. The cat didn't have the same qualms about the situation.

"Why do you wish to speak to The Doctor? Other than, of course, his magnificance." The voice was magnified in the empty space.

"Like I said, I'm very important to him." She spoke quietly, but it still echoed all around them.

"You know him then?"

She shrugged. "Sort of."

"What does that mean?"

"My mom knew him very, very well."

At the end of the hallway, there were two sucking lizards guarding a door. They held guns larger than Renee's torso, and she had no trouble believing they knew how to use them. The feline somehow convinced the guards to let them through, and they continued down another hallway, this one cement.

"What's your name?" Renee asked, hoping for something more normal than what was starting to look like a high-security prison. Amy told her that her mother had been in prison for a while, for something she hadn't even done. She wondered if her father was in a similar situation, but she tried not to think about it.

"Elethia. You've yet to tell me yours."

"Renee."

"Would The Doctor not let you in on that?"

She shook her head. "No. He doesn't know me by name yet." He likely didn't know her at all, but she wasn't going to say that.

At the end of this hallway, a congregation of almost a dozen soldiers convened. They all had the same gargantuan guns and harsh look. She didn't care about the suckers or the scales. What she didn't like was the dead hatred in their eyes. It was like they knew her and hated her. It was like facing her schoolmates with weaponry.

Elethia convinced the soldiers to let them through, though the door was shut near immediately after they entered. The room was dim, but Renee's eyes adjusted quickly.

It was small, maybe three to five square meters. On the other side was yet another door. This one appeared to be glass, but she assumed it was something stronger. The only light in the room came from the next chamber, and the hanging bulb inside illuminated a sleeping man laying against the back wall with his head resting right on the bricks. He was tall and thin with creases in his face and gray hair. He wore a suit and dress shoes with scuffed, rounded toes. Renee felt an immediate distrust toward the man.

She stepped forward, slowly and cautiously. "That's him?" Her voice was quiet, but at it's first sound, his eyes opened. He scrambled to his feet and faced the door, though he didn't look at Renee, just in her general direction.

"Yes," Elethia said.

"He doesn't look like The Doctor."

"Well," he said, "Who am I supposed to look like?"

"That's weird. When did you become Scottish? I thought you were supposed to be British. And young." Neither of those things seemed to be true right now.

"Who are you?" He still wasn't looking at her. "You must have known me in my last incarnation. Or maybe the one before. Either fits the description you gave. Would you mind turning on that light so I can see you, not just the other way around?"

Elethia turned on the light. "One way glass," she explained as she did.

The doctor laid eyes on Renee and wrinkled his nose. "No, you do not know me. Who are you?"

"I've never met you," she clarified. "That doesn't mean I don't know you."

"I beg to differ."

"Well, you won't after you know my name."

"And what would that be?"

"Or if you knew who I am in relation to you."

His eyebrows furrowed. He couldn't stand this suspense, and she quite liked to keep him floundering. "Who would that be?"

"Or if you knew who my mother is."

"Who?"

"Guess." She smirked. Amy told her she looked exactly like her mother when she had a secret, and she was enjoying keeping the other person in suspense.

He stared at her for a long moment, then his eyebrows managed to become closer still, a feat on it's own. "What is your name?"

"Renee Amelia Song. I'm your daughter."

"I don't have a daughter."

Elethia, looking a little awkward, cut in. "I'm not sure exactly what is happening here, but if it is private, I could step out."

"No," Renee assured her. "We'll be fine."

"You can't be my daughter." The Doctor ignored the feline.

"Why not?"

"Because I was never away from River long enough for me not to have noticed that."

"Says who? Her? Amy says she was a good liar."

He froze and his face slackened. "Amy?"

"Yep. Since River died, I've been living with her and Rory."

He approached the glass and reached in his pocket. His face fell again. "Will someone _please _let me out? Or at least give me my sonic back?"

"Wouldn't that be the same thing?" Renee asked.

"Shut up! I need to come out of here so you can prove all of this!"

"How can I do that?"

"I try not to make a habit of it, but I'm going to read your mind."

She stepped back, almost to the door. Obviously, the idea of someone rifling through her mind was unnerving, but she had little to hide. It was just this particular man. He felt... sour. "You're... going to read my mind? No."

"Why not? Did you lie?"

"No, but you can't just go around reading people's minds!"

"That's why I try not to make a habit of it."

"Would it help?" Elethia asked. "If you read her mind, and she proved it, would it help whatever it is this is about?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor said. "Would it, girl?"

"Renee." she said. "And yes. That's kind of why I came. Is there any other way to prove it?"

"Who's your mother?"

"River Song, though her real name is Melody Pond. She left me with Amy and Rory when I was four months old. Soon after, a man named Jack showed up at our house with her diary and a vortex manipulator. I stole both of them from Amy and Rory's room when I was five, but I didn't use the manipulator again until I was a little older since I didn't like the Vortex."

"Why did you start using it again?"

"Because I wanted to find you or Mom."

"Too simple." He paced in his cell. "Anyone could give that answer. Give me a real reason."

"Fine! Because I didn't want to sleep, and I didn't want to sit in my bedroom all night!"

He spun back to her. "Why didn't you want to sleep?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I kept having weird dreams. I could never remember them, but I'd always wake up scared."

"Now that," he pointed. "That's a reason. That's a reason that actually sounds like a reasonable reason. But it doesn't prove that you're my daughter. It proves that you're a person, and one quite interesting at that, but it doesn't prove that you're my daughter."

"Well how do I prove that?"

"Let me out, and I can read your mind."

"No!" The same sick foreboding sunk her stomach.

"If it'll make you feel any better, you'll be reading mine. You'll know if it's really me."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"You can't. You're just going to have to trust me." She could tell by the tone in his voice that he was used to people following that.

"Should I open the door?" Elethia asked.

"I-" Renee looked between the supposed Doctor and the door's lock. There were half a dozen gunmen just outside. They could come at the sound of a scream. It would only take one. "I guess we don't have much of a choice."

Valeria looked nervous, but she went to the door and unlocked it. The Doctor rushed out, and Renee instinctively backed up a little. He smoothed his jacket. "Okay! Here we go! Ready?"

He approached her, and she backed into the wall. He frowned, his puffy eyebrows crinkling together. "You don't trust me."

"No. Make me." She forced her voice to be steady. She couldn't place what made this man unnerve her so much. He seemed just like any old man. He was manic, but he was just an old man.

"Okay then. Here we go. I'll try to make this quick." He put his hands up to her temples.

And in her mind, the universe exploded.

Everything was everywhere. Literally, it seemed. She couldn't tell up from down or past from present. All her remembered life seemed to be happening at the same time.

Then another. A life she didn't recognize at first. This one was his.

She saw years and years of love and death, joy and despair, life and genocide. There were plenty of gray areas, but there was no time to sort through them.

She saw flashes of her mother and her grandparents. She saw them dying.

Renee tried to linger on some of the memories but couldn't figure out how. But when she saw her mother's death... She didn't know what had happened, and it had scared her as a child. She thought whatever it was would come for her, that she would succumb to the same fate as River did.

Without meaning to, she was suddenly experiencing...

River Song sat on what looked like a throne in a spacesuit. The two massive ends of the cords were held inches from one another, and she stared into the Doctor's eyes. "_Hush now... Spoilers..."_

Renee, or The Doctor, tried to pull out of the handcuffs that held him there, but it was already too late. River was dying.

She saw The Doctor upload her to CAL, and watched him walk away. She almost got angry. How could he leave her like that?

Then, she was jerked from his mind and thrown almost violently back into her own. Everything seemed to hurt, and she could barely move without feeling a searing pain in her head.

A monster emerged from the shadows. There was no other way for Renee to describe the thing. It was pale white and both humanoid and completely inhuman.

Then, Renee was back in the room with The Doctor and Elethia, and The Doctor was helping her to sit. She tried to figure out what was happening.

"Hey... Renee?" The Doctor was speaking to her. She tried to answer.

"What?" Her voice came out shaky.

"Do you know what that was?"

She shook her head. "No... Did you- Did you see your evidence?"

He nodded. "Yes. And you're going to have to come with me. You're in danger. A lot of danger."


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: We do not own Doctor Who.**

Chapter Three

Elethia helped Renee to her feet as The Doctor paced the small room. She insisted that she was fine, but Elethia still looked concerned.

"How?" The Doctor said. "How did you end up there? When? There are no gaps!"

Renee wanted to question him, but she took a few minutes to gather herself before she spoke. "Do _you _know what that was?"

"OF course I do!" But he frowned. "Of course, but now I can't remember what it was..."

"You can't remember?" She said, incredulous. It seemed ridiculous. Renee didn't think that she'd ever forget the creature. It automatically sent her into a panic for no good reason. "Was it in your head?"

"No, no, no. That was you."

"Are you sure? I would have remembered something like that happening to me."

"No. You wouldn't."

"How? That thing made me-" She almost admitted her fear. "It was an actual monster."

He turned to her. "You remember it?"

She nodded. "I don't think I'll ever forget now. What was it?"

The Doctor paced again, somehow quicker than before. "You remember it? You're not supposed to remember it!"

"Doctor," Elethia said, still seeming timid. "I think we should get her to a cot or a chair."

"I'm fine," Renee insisted.

"You're trembling," Elethia shot back.

She'd known. It didn't have to be said. In fact, she was sure The Doctor knew it too. She felt so shaky, it was a wonder she was standing. "I just didn't expect it. This is probably just an automatic response. Doctor, er- Dad, you said I'm in danger? Could I get an explanation?"

"I forget! You're in danger, and I can't remember why!"

"Does it have something to do with that thing we saw?" She was getting frustrated. This didn't make any sense.

"What did we see?"

"That monster! You don't-" She stopped, trying to remember a story Amy had told her once when she and Annabella had a sleepover. They were trying to come up with the best scary stories, and Amy had told a story of monsters that no one could remember. What were they called?

"Is it one of those monsters you can't remember? The, uh..." She thought back. This seemed so long ago. "The Silence?"

He stopped pacing and turned to her again, looking surprised. "How do you know what those are?"

The reaction seemed accusatory, like she shouldn't, like the fact that she did meant she was evil. "Amy told me when I was a kid. She told it as if it was just a scary story. I didn't really believe they were real, but they sure kept Bella and I awake half the night."

"She told someone else too? Who's Bella?"

"A neighbor." Renee shrugged. "So what are they? I don't remember much of the story now."

"Do you remember what we saw?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I don't understand. Maybe it's not The Silence."

"Describe it."

She tilted her head to the side, thinking. "Pale, like dead pale. It was tall and bald. It looked like an alien. Well, more like a human depiction of an alien. I know they don't really look like that. It kind of looks like slenderman."

"What's a slenderman?"

"Never mind. Tall, thin, black suit, alien-ish thing. Does that sound like it?"

"I don't know! I don't remember."

"Why did you have me describe it then?"

"I figured it might trigger something."

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall. She still had vertigo, though not as badly as before. "Well, what do the Silence do? Why do I have to be so scared of them?"

"Do you know your mother's story?"

She shrugged. "Sort of. She had a messed up timeline. She never met you in the right order. She was an archeologist. Amy and Rory were her parents, but she grew up along side them. She died on an expedition when I was four months old. I have her diary, and I read it."

"Four months... So you don't remember her?" His worn face became grim.

"I have pictures." She shrugged off his worry.

"What is the danger?" Elethia asked. "Should I be concerned about the base?"

"No!" He said. "We'll go. I'll need to get back to the TARDIS, though."

She frowned. "I'm not authorized to let you go."

"Even if she was," Renee said, "There are guards outside."

"Then get me my sonic, and I'll handle the rest. You won't get in trouble, but if it takes longer or I fail, the base _will _be in danger. Not only that, but you'll have her blood on your hands." He pointed to Renee, and she crossed her arms and stepped away from the wall.

"Hold on. Why am I suddenly in danger? I mean, this can't be a new thing, right? Not if it's in my head. I've been fine so far. What more can it do? Obviously, the stupid thing can't catch me." She smirked, more to herself than him. She could outrun monsters she didn't know were chasing her. She didn't have to be scared.

"It's not an it. It's a whole lot bigger than an it."

"You're not making any sense," she pointed out. "You also aren't using English correctly. This just proves that translators don't help you improve at languages. That's why I go manual. Well, that and most of the time, I don't have much of a choice. But I've always gone manual when I do."

"You're getting distracted!" he said.

"Oh, and you don't?" She scoffed.

"No."

"Amy and Rory have different opinions on that."

There was a harsh rap on the door and a snarled bit of acerbus. The Doctor turned back to Renee. "Do you know acerbus?"

She shook her head, feeling stupid for even saying that little speech about the translators. It was invalid at this moment.

"He says we have two minutes," Elethia informed them.

"I know." The Doctor said. "It was a test."

"Tell them we'll be out there soon," Renee said.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Elethia caught on and said something loudly, and yet, somehow still timidly out the door. They responded. Then, in English, she said, "Two minutes, and they're coming in."

There was no denying to Renee that The Doctor was probably the last person in that room who should be trusted. There was also no denying that she had very few options.

"Doctor, what do we do?"

"What happened to calling me Dad?"

"_Doctor_!"

He raised his hands, ready to either surrender or push whenever needed.

Maybe there was one other person she could trust. Herself.

He spoke. "Fine. Alright." He pointed to Elethia. "Sonic screwdriver."

"How do I get it?"

"Shut up," Renee said. She was thinking of a plan, but she couldn't do it with him talking. He listened for the first time since they'd let him out, and she worked through the mess of thoughts in her head, gently nudging the unwanted new memories deeper as she did. They wouldn't stay down. They clouded her planning, but she had an idea, and she just hoped it was halfway decent.

"Do you have a plan?" Elethia asked.

She smiled. "Yep. Doctor, get back in the cell. Elethia, watch him."

"What are you going to do?" he asked. The tone in his voice had changed. He'd been protective since he'd seen that monster, but now it was more than that. She guessed he wanted the control.

"None of your business, Eyebrows. Get in the cell. Now."

He pouted and went to stand on the other side of the glass door. Elethia closed it and looked back to Renee for her next instruction.

"Lay down on the floor," she told her. Elethia followed instantly. There was too much trust in their race. If this plan didn't work, this would be very bad for her. "If they come in, make it look like you're unconscious. If they ask: I went insane and hit you. Doctor, can you hear me?"

He nodded at her.

"If that door so much as opens after I leave, start trying to wake her up. Pretend you witnessed me going crazy and knocking her out."

"What are you going to do?" he asked again.

"You'll see." Maybe.

She turned to the door and opened it in a swift, confident motion that told nothing of her anxiety toward the situation or the slight dizziness that got worse with the gust of air. All six guards turned to her at once.

_Please be attractive by their planet's standards..._ she thought and put on an innocent face as she shut the door. Renee was about five foot five with enough curves to be called curvy but not enough to be an hourglass. Although, she did tend to dress for her figure. She pointed in the direction of the hallway she'd come from, cocked her hip, and said, "I forgot to tell you.. They want you out there. Some sort of security breach or something."

With her luck, none of them spoke any English, but she knew that she could use hand signals pretty well.

One said something in acerbus that she didn't understand, and she pointed in the direction of the hallway again, adding a bit more molten chocolate to her already warm and sweet tone. "They need you."

Clearly, none of them understood. The room stunk of sweat, and the men just stared in silence. It was more awkward than facing her father. She sighed dramatically and motioned them toward her as she started down the hallway. They didn't move.

"The Doctor is guarded inside. They need you out there." A bit of her impatience made it into her voice, but she managed to keep her movements smooth.

They didn't understand, and despite various tactics of hand motions that probably made her look insane, they still stood, motionless. Finally, she remembered the iPhone in her pocket. With a sigh, she pulled it out. She really was still out of it.

All six men cocked their guns at the same time, and she hit "WiFi". Luckily, she saw a few labeled _"unknown source_," a key indicator of them being native to whatever planet she was on. She clicked on one and looked up "English to Acerbus translator" on their search engine. It came up quickly, and she said into it, "I forgot to tell you. They need you in the main area. There's been a security breech."

It said something in Acerbus, and a few of them loosened the grip on their guns. One said something back. She translated "repeat", and clicked the switch button so it would translate acerbus to English.

"Why should we listen to you?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

"Who are you?"

"Ever heard the last name Song?"

She had the translator ready for their response, but none of them spoke for a long time. Finally, one said, "You are not River Song."

"No, but I am _a _Song."

"River Song has no relatives."

"You wanna bet?"

Only one was still unconvinced, but he seemed to realize what he was up against when she translated one last thing.

"Oh, and I think the security breech was near the pods."

The pods was where the children stayed most of the time. It was also the furthest area from where they were that Renee knew the name of. They began to leave, and Renee seized the opportunity that their panic gave her.

She cleared her throat, and the men stopped. With snake-like precision, she took one of their forearms. "Where is The Doctor's sonic screwdriver?"

One pulled it from his uniform and held it up to her. "Are you authorized?"

"I have pockets made with Time Lord science. You can't imagine how many weapons I'm armed with at this very moment."

He tossed it to her without further questioning, and she watched them leave before going back in. Elethia looked dead, and The Doctor gave a convincing act.

"It's just me, idiots. Stop the yelling before they hear you.'

Elethia shot up and quickly opened the door of The Doctor's cell. Renee threw him the sonic, and he caught it with ease. "Great! Let's go!"

But Elethia looked unsure. "What did you do?"

"Do you want to come with us?" Renee asked in response. "I don't know if they'll connect you to what's about to happen or not, but I wouldn't suggest risking it."

"What did you do?" she repeated.

She looked to the Doctor who was playing with his screwdriver. "I used my name. It's powerful."

He froze and looked up. "What's you're name?"

She laughed. "Renee Song!"

He shook his head. "I don't know. You say it like it's something else."

"Like yours? No. I just started using Mom's reputation a while ago to help me out of sticky situations. It works well. I think I'm building my own reputation now. Someone called me _The Sister_."

"Why?"

"Because they 'knew' River Song had never been pregnant, and I was too old to be her daughter anyway. That's what I figure at least, not like that's good logic."

He fiddled with the screwdriver another moment, and something occurred to Renee. "Doctor, I have my vortex manipulator."

"Where did you get _that_?"

"Someone brought it. It was Mom's."

"No!" The Doctor said. "We need to get Clara. They have her too!"

"The human?" Elethia asked.

"Yes, the human. Who else did I come with?"

"We can use the vortex manipulator to get her," Renee offered.

He shook his head. "A vortex manipulator shouldn't take that many people anyway."

She scowled. "Well what are we supposed to do? I got rid of the first round of guards, but unless they took the others with them, we'll have more to face. I say we go for it." She didn't really care that she hated the vortex. By that point, she honestly just wanted to get out of the situation they were in. Sure, she'd been in worse, but it'd been a while since the last time she was shot, and she didn't want to experience that again.

Elethia said, "You don't have to take me then."

"We'll figure something out," The Doctor said. She could remember a time she'd been told that as a child, but she quickly swallowed the memory, unable to process it at that moment.

"No time," she said with sudden vigor. "Where's Clara?"

Though the question was pointed toward The Doctor, Elethia answered. "The girl is being kept in the main jail. I can show you."

"Do you have the coordinates for it?"

"I have the coordinates for an x-ray room down the hall."

"Close enough."

"Renee, you shouldn't be doing this." The doctor stretched his face with his hands. That explained the wrinkles. "That vortex manipulator is going to short out."

She shrugged. "It has before. I once got stranded on a planet of poisonous gas. Let me tell you, always have an alien tech helpline on speed-dial when traveling with a very old vortex manipulator to an uninhabited planet of poisonous gas, because watching the multicolored sunrise is not worth death."

He grunted in either frustration or agreement, she couldn't tell which, and motioned for the girls to continue. Elethia reported the coordinates, and Renee typed them in. Within a minute, the three were in the doorway of an x-ray room down the hall from a jail guarded by two men with guns that Renee didn't feel like being at the wrong end of.

"I have authorization to enter the jail," Elethia was saying while they were still hidden, "But not to take prisoners out."

"Go on then," Renee said. "Try to get as many staff to leave as possible, and we'll be right behind you."

She nodded and stepped from the doorway. Renee watched the simple back-and-forth before she entered the jail, noting that they didn't ask for any ID, but also noting that her and her father's species would give away enough.

"Dad?" she said.

"We're back to 'Dad' then?"

"Shut up. Dad, I don't think I can get rid of these ones without getting physical, and I happen to have forgotten my hammer." It was under her bed as it didn't actually fit in her pockets. She may have told a bit of a lie when she said her pockets had Time Lord science. In fact, they just happened to be kind of big pockets. Currently, all they held was a quarter left over from the drink machine, her iPhone, and a gum wrapper.

Then she remembered and grinned. "Actually, I'll be right back."

Walking down the hallway, she made sure to do her runway walk Amy had taught her as a child. Amy had told her that models walk in a perfectly straight line, one foot in front of the other, because it excentuates their figure. At the same time, she slipped her iPhone from her pocket and unlocked it. Into the translator, she said, "Hey boys. I have a deal for you."

They looked suspicious. Actually, she thought they looked suspicious, but sometimes the same facial expressions had different meanings on other planets. She pulled out the quarter and held it up.

Earth money at this time in Ac's history was very valuable. A single quarter could be auctioned for at least a hundred dollars, and that was the last time she checked. From their lack of cleanliness in the base, she assumed they'd gone into a recession since then and that Earth money was worth even more.

Her hypothesis was confirmed by the drool drip coming from one man's mouth. Customs on Ac were nothing pretty.

"Okay boys," she said, maybe a little smug. "You want this quarter? Leave us for thirty minutes, and you can have it, but wait!" One grabbed for it, and she pulled it away. "Make sure you share."


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: randomgirl1385 and I do not own Doctor Who.**

Chapter Four

Slimy was a word Renee had loved as a child. She used it to describe food, toys, Anthony, and about anything else that fit the description. When she walked into the jail, the word took on a whole new meaning.

Everything was caked in grime. The floor was slippery with it. From the smell and coloring, it was a combination of sweat, rotting food, and feces. The last one made her shudder. Some of it was soaked up by equally rotted straw, but it was thinly dispersed and mostly ineffective.

The room was huge and dimly lit by hanging florescent rectangles that bore a strange resemblance to those in her school. The walls were a sick brown color, and the floor- Well, she couldn't tell the floor's original color.

There were no traditional cells in the room. It seemed to be makeshift, and the criminals in dirty jumpsuits occupied cages with thick wire walls. Some slept on rotting mattresses. A few rushed to the doors and begged for the Doctor and Renee to help them. Some, the most horrifying by Renee's standards, didn't move at all. They just gazed blankly out at them as if they weren't there.

Elethia had managed to get all the workers out, but it seemed that she got herself out in the process. Renee wondered if they should wait for her or not.

All Renee knew about the aforementioned 'Clara' was that she either was or looked like a human. That cut out a good majority of the residents, and Renee stopped in front of one of the blank-faced prisoners.

She was small with a round face and shoulder length brunette hair. Judging from the lack of layers of dirt and the face, that her eyes and cheeks weren't sunken in like most of the other occupants, she guessed this one was fairly new. In the time here, though, she had acquired a few bruises, unless those were from before. "Clara?" she whispered.

She blinked wide, brown eyes at Renee. "Huh?"

"I'm Renee. I'm with The Doctor. We're here to get you out."

She frowned deeper, her eyes still haunted. "Why?"

Renee didn't have an answer to that, so she improvised. "The Doctor insisted."

His voice floated over then. "Did you find her?"

"Yeah. Number..." She looked at the number and almost laughed at the irony, but laughing didn't belong in here. "Eleven." Her dad was clearly no longer number eleven. He rushed over, and immediately twisted his face into one of anger at the sight of her. I told them to treat you well!"

"They didn't listen," she said simply. The Doctor unlocked the cell door and helped Clara to her feet. She looked down at herself and seemed to realize what she looked like. "I need a shower."

"We'll get you one in the TARDIS," he told her, leading her out.

"My vortex manipulator still has seven minutes before it can work again," Renee said. He frowned.

"Really? That's not like such good technology to take so long."

Renee shrugged. "It's old."

Clara sat back on the bench in her cell, this time with the gate open. After a slight hesitation, Renee walked over and sat beside her. "Are you okay?"

She shrugged. "Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. The Doctor was already occupied with something near a small window. When she wasn't watching the floor, Clara watched him.

"What did they do to you? And don't say "nothing", because I know they did something."

She shrugged. "Not much."

"So neglect?" Clara didn't respond, and Renee took her response as an affirmation. "Have you eaten?"'

She shook her head.

"Well, we can get you something as soon as we're out of here. And a shower. I've been in here not ten minutes, and..." Her face contorted. "I feel like I'm sloshing around in sewage."

"You might as well be," The Doctor said, coming closer. "Some sewage lines are cleaner than this place. Is the vortex manipulator ready?"

It was then that they heard the door open. Renee glanced down at her manipulator and flipped open the screen. It still wasn't ready.

"Doctor," she whispered. "What do we do?"

"Renee?" they heard Elethia whisper. "Doctor?"

"Over here," The Doctor said. He stepped out of the cell. Renee followed, motioning for Clara to come along.

She waited, but when The Doctor didn't introduce them, she said, "Clara, this is Elethia. Elethia, this is Clara."

They nodded at each other, and Elethia said, "I'm so sorry I couldn't help you earlier. I don't have the authority." She looked around, then to Renee. "Could we take anyone else with us? Please? Some of them honestly haven't done anything."

She shook her head. "I wish I could help, but this is already too many people."

The vortex manipulator vibrated, indicating it was ready to travel. Clara jumped a little at the buzzing sound. The Doctor turned to Renee. "We should go."

"Yeah," Renee said. She took Clara's hand first and held the other out to Elethia. The Doctor would know to hold on. He hesitated, then he walked over to Clara and held her hand. "Ready?"

"Yes," The Doctor said.

"Wait," Elethia said, pulling away. "I can't leave them here."

"We can't take anymore. I'm sorry." To be totally honest, she mostly wanted to leave. She wanted to help, but they were going to get caught soon, and she actually was starting to get tired.

"No. One more. Please?"

The Doctor began to object, but Renee just groaned and said, "Wait here. Get _one _person, and I'll be right back."

"We don't have time," The Doctor said.

"I don't really care. Are you both ready?"

Clara nodded, and Renee took The Doctor's silence as a yes, and they disappeared. When they reappeared in front of the TARDIS, Renee was the first to enter. She ignored the slight swirling in her stomach from the vortex and pointed The Doctor to what she assumed was the console. "We have to leave."

Clara plopped down on the bottom stair. "What about the cat?"

"Elethia," Renee said, "And that's the exact reason we have to leave. I can't use this again for a half hour. I can't reappear where I've already been. Well, I _can_, but it's not a good idea. Doctor?"

He went to the console and started pushing buttons and flipping levers. Renee had seen drawings of the TARDIS in her mother's diary, but it looked even more impressive in person.

The entire ship lurched, and she flailed for the railing before she could fall. Luckily, she caught herself, but if she'd thought that the vortex was bad...

She righted herself before he could see her leaning against the railing and snapped, "What ever happened to the stabilizers?"

He froze for a second. The TARDIS lurched again. "Where did you hear about those?"

"That's unrelated. Just turn them on! This can't be what it's supposed to feel like." If it was, she wasn't sure she could handle another trip through the vortex like this. "Maybe I don't know which buttons they are," he countered with a scowl. Renee strode forward and looked around the console for blue switches. Finding them, she flipped them all simultaneously and the ship stabilized

Behind her, she heard Clara groan, "_Doctor_... You never thought to put those on before?"

He crossed his arms. "I don't like them. They're boring."

Renee lowered herself onto the stairs next to Clara. "You know, Dad... I thought you were clever."

"Me too," Clara said, teasing as well. "What ever happened to _"'Run you clever boy_'?"

He scowled. "I am clever. I just don't like the stabilizers."

The ship landed and Renee looked at the screen. It wasn't in English, but she recognized the language, despite not knowing the name of it. She was a little surprised to see it. "Why here?"

"You can read it?" Clara asked.

"Yeah. Doctor, what language is it?"

"Gallifreyan."

Of course it was. "I just thought the designs Mom did inside her diary in a few places were cool, and I thought they looked like letters to me, but when I asked Bella, she said it was just pretty, so I wrote it myself. Why are we here?"

"Oh. This is Clara's apartment."

Clara crossed her arms and stood. "I'm not leaving now. I don't even know who this is. Can I at least get an explanation?"

"This is Renee. She's my daughter."

She stared at him. "That's it? And since when do you have a daughter?"

"To be totally fair," Renee said. "He didn't know about it either."

The Doctor floundered a bit between the two of them. Renee could tell he was struggling for what to do now, so she said, "We just need to kill thirty minutes, you know. Then we can do the whole running thing or whatever, and be done."

"That's not what-"

She cut him off with a laugh. "Oh, come on! You've done nothing but look angry at me since I told you who I was. Okay, sure. Maybe you took a few minutes looking shocked, but that's about it. I don't know what I expected, but it's fine. I can go home if you want."

He shook his head. "No! Your my daughter. I just- I don't really know how this works anymore. It's been a long time, and the last time..." From the twist in his face, she wondered what 'the last time' meant.

"Come on," Renee said. "You probably want a shower, Clara. Can I get some water?"

Clara nodded and Renee followed her out. "Go on. We're probably in the living room anyway."

"Yes," The Doctor said.

"Right then. Go on."

Renee didn't want to, but she decided she'd better let them figure this out and left the TARDIS alone. Clara's apartment was small but nice. The only sign that anyone lived here was that through an open door, she could see that the bed was unmade, and a stack of papers on the coffee table had slid so that they fanned across, stopped only by an empty mug. From the smell of the room, she assumed it had been tea.

Curious, Renee leaned over to look at the papers. They looked like schoolwork, and she realized Clara must be a teacher.

Because she was alone, Renee could finally let herself appear tired. She perched on the edge of a couch cushion and looked around the room, fully alert, but she let her eyes droop as they wanted to, and she let herself yawn when the urge came. It had been only a little over a half hour since she left home, but she could go back at any time.

She probably should have just jumped forward to the next morning. Maybe she could make it through school without falling asleep that way. Without Annabella, she'd sleep through the entire school day. And probably put on quite a show. Bella was the first to alert her that she talked in her sleep.

The couch was soft, and she really just wanted to sleep. She tried to remember the last time she let herself sleep instead of accidentally doing so on the bus ride or in class. This time, it had been a few weeks.

Oddly, a sort of pride rippled through her at the realization it had been at least two weeks. Despite knowing this was a horrible thing to do to herself, she also knew that meant minimal nightmares.

If the science she'd looked into was right, she was depriving herself of REM sleep, otherwise known as Rapid Eye Movement sleep. This is where most of the dreaming happens. This is also supposedly a very important sleep stage.

She glanced longingly at the couch again, but decided to stand. If she sat there much longer, she'd lay down, and if she laid down, she'd sleep. If she slept, her nightmares would be out there for the world to hear. The world included her dad and Clara. She didn't even know Clara! She couldn't start spurting out the stuff of her nightmares to her!

Clara came out of the TARDIS and immediately took off her shoes and leaned heavily against the blue doors. After a long silence, she said, "Well."

Renee waited.

"Well, I guess I have to throw those away."

* * *

><p>Renee dozed on the couch while Clara showered. It seemed like only a minute had gone by when her body jerked at a weird buzzing sensation. Confused, she looked around. The first thing she noticed was that the shower had gone quiet. She must have fallen asleep.<p>

_Oh no._ She groaned inwardly. She was careful! Luckily, she realized she had woken less than a half hour later since the vortex manipulator had to have been what woke her up. Clara came in with two cups of tea wearing a robe over pajamas. Her hair was wet. "Oh. You woke up." She set the tea down on the coffee table. It had been cleared. "Sorry," she mumbled and sat up.

"No problem."

"Did I... Um, did I talk at all?" She couldn't _remember _having a dream. She didn't think there was enough time to, but...

"No. Why? Do you usually?" She folded up in the armchair.

Renee shrugged. "My vortex manipulator buzzed. I'm going to go get Elethia."

"Couldn't The Doctor do it?" Renee almost groaned. She could hear the I-care-because-I'm-a-teacher-and-I-love-kids tone coming on. Clara continued. "I mean, you seem tired."

"No," Renee said quickly. "I'm fine. I'll be right back. Tell him I left to get Elethia, okay?"

She nodded and sipped her tea while Renee pressed in the coordinates. "Did you get something to eat?"

Clara nodded.

"See you in a minute."

"Be careful."

Renee pressed the button.

She was glad that she'd be bringing people back with her. Going through the vortex alone was so much harder. When she was going with someone else, she could hold onto someone and claim it was for their safety. Now, she just flailed. It wasn't on purpose, but when you're flying at very nearly the speed of light through the vortex, there isn't exactly such a thing as self control.

That is, there isn't such a thing as self control unless you have someone with you. In that case, there isn't much of a choice.

She appeared in the hallway again. There were no guards at the door, but it wasn't quiet. As she tried to balance herself and gain her footing, the noise slowly shaped itself into something recognizable. In fact, it was words: French words.

"Madame, please!" She could hear Elethia crying out. The girl screamed then, and Renee lurched into a run to the door, still slightly unsteady.

"Now Elethia, of all the things!" another French tongue said. "I find you helping _prisoners_. You cannot honestly say that you had a good reason to be doing so."

"You don't have to-" Her words were cut off with a gasp of pain.

Renee threw open the door, not caring that she was both unarmed and not fully aware of what she was walking into.

There were three sucking lizards around Elethia who was collapsed on the filthy floor. Another feline nurse loomed over her, a calm, lucid look in her eyes. She turned to the door. "Oh, the mysterious girl."

"My name's Renee," she said simply. She strode forward, walking like a model again. From what she knew, it was supposed to make her appear more confident as well.

"Yes?"

"Yes. Renee Song."

She laughed. "Why yes. Of course. I've heard of you. In fact, your _friend_ here was telling me about you."

Elethia looked up at Renee. Despite being surrounded, she motioned as inconspicuously as she could manage at her right. When Renee looked up, she saw a frail boy cowering beneath the stare of another soldier's form.

He was probably around Renee's age. There wasn't much separating his species from human beside his skin being scaly and green. She recognized it as Silurian.

The boy was severely emaciated and almost completely bare. A small pile of cloth lay heaped on the floor at his feet. The lizard shouted acerbus at him and pointed his finger down at the ground. He was either telling the boy to strip further or to put his clothes back on. From the boy's terrified and confused expression, she guessed he knew as well as she did.

She turned back to the feline. "What's going on here?"

"Routine punishment for an escape."

"Which is?"

She ignored Renee's question, and motioned the guards to Elethia. They all raised their guns.

Renee caught on.

"Wait!" she shouted, but by the time the word was out of her mouth, it was too late.

All three guns went off at the same time, and Elethia crumpled to the ground. The boy squeaked with fear and dropped into the slime with his arms over his head. At first, Renee wasn't sure how to react. She just stared.

Elethia's shaking stopped.

Renee spun to the feline and pounced on her. She threw the murderer into one of the fence-like gates and held her by her neck. For the first time, the calm look in her eyes was replaced by something stronger: fear.

Something was shouted in acerbus, and the woman said, "Let me go or they'll shoot you." Renee didn't want to be shot again, but that was two friends in one day unfairly killed. She held tighter. The woman quickly caught on.

"Let go or they will shoot _him_." Renee didn't have to ask who she meant. She meant that innocent boy, the boy that Elethia was so convinced of innocence, she'd both chosen him over any others and fought for him to be able to come.

"I'm still not happy."

She let the feline drop to the floor, sputtering a little, and backed up so the lizards could see.

The boy was on his feet again, held against another gate by the end of a gun that he likely wouldn't be strong enough to hold. She pointed to him and turned back to the feline. "Let him come with me."

"No." She was still breathing heavily but she wasn't struggling to speak. "He's ours." She said something in acerbus, and before it was out, Renee had turned back to the boy and the soldier. She had already started at them before the sentence was completely uttered. She didn't have to know the language to know what was being said. Her ears stung almost as much as her eyes and her throat, almost as much as the ghost pain of empathy wounds radiating from her abdomen as the boy cried out at a volume she didn't know was humanly possible. Then again, maybe it wasn't. He crumpled to the ground, and the first -and last- thing she heard him say was said as if this was okay, as if this was all he wanted. It was in English. "She was asking for you..."

**a/n: More chapters coming soon! Thanks for all the follows and favorites! We love getting reviews too.  
><strong>**from almbookbuyer: Constructive criticism is welcome as well, so don't feel like you have to sugar coat. I'm looking to get better in my writing, so feel free to be truthful.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: We do not own Doctor Who.**

**NOTE: randomgirl1385 added the swear in the first sentence. Not me. I'm a non-swearer. Sorry, I just don't want that down incorrectly.**

Chapter Five

If that feline wasn't dead, she was pretty damn close, and Renee wasn't sure how to feel about it. She reappeared in front of Clara asleep in the same chair she'd been in before, her tea set on the coffee table. Renee touched the mug. It was still quite warm, so she'd timed her landing well.

Not wanting to wake Clara, she went into the TARDIS to find The Doctor. She didn't want company, but she also didn't really want to be alone. Really, she just wanted to go home and get Annabella.

"Doctor?" she called. "Dad?" He bounded in, holding a pile of trinkets and rusted parts. "Hello, Renee. I was just working on the Old Girl. Did you go?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice. His happiness was wrong, and he didn't even know it.

"Where's Elethia then? Who did she-" He stopped and put the things down. "What happened?"

Renee felt shaky. Three people dead. Maybe four. She'd lost control. She shouldn't have, but she did. The feline was partially responsible for Kree's death and completely responsible for Elethia's and the boy's. She didn't even know the boy's name.

And what did he mean _"'She was asking for you...'_"?

"What happened?" The Doctor asked again. She shook her head to clear it. "They were caught. Her and a boy maybe a little younger than me." She kept her voice as steady and as calm as she could so she wouldn't start crying. She didn't want to cry in front of The Doctor. She had read in River's diary about his social awkwardness, and she figured it got even worse when someone reacted to something by crying.

He came over, the crossness on his face having near evaporated. It wasn't quite gone; Renee doubted it would ever be, but it was nearly gone. That was almost good enough.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded. "I've seen people die before."

"When?"

"It happens when you travel all of time and space."

"But who?" He was becoming cross again.

She shrugged and slipped away from him, going to the console and inspecting the buttons. They'd changed since her mother had drawn them in her diary, but she found many of the key ones easily. There was the start and the controls.

"Renee, tell me. How old are you? Who have you seen die at this age?"

"Elethia, my friend Kree, and that guy about my age died today. Do you want me to list every time I've watched someone die? That wasn't the full list of casualties _today_."

She knew she sounded angry, but she didn't care. She felt that way.

"You think I haven't seen death?" The Doctor demanded. Her tone must have made him more angry. "I watched thousands, _millions_, of people die. Sometimes I'd watch millions die in the same day. I live through the deaths of everyone close to me. I watched my planet die. I watched your mother die."

Renee spun around and glared at him. "With all that death, you'd think you'd know how to stop it."

For a moment, the anger vanished, replaced with shock so complete you'd think she'd slapped him. It didn't last long though. "You should be very careful when you speak, Renee."

"You don't think I know that?" She laughed coldly. "I've almost been beheaded by Queen Victoria for saying my mother's name. And that's purely because she was associated with you! In fact, that was the second time I'd been close to being executed and not the first time I'd been sentenced to it." "Then I guess you haven't learned."

"What about you? Like I said, it was by association with you that my mom's name almost got me killed. What did you do to Queen Victoria?" He squirmed, and she laughed again. "Exactly my point! I don't even need the answer. Your face says it all."

"You don't know anything about me."

"No. I don't. So enlighten me. Tell me why Amy talks like you're a god, but everywhere I go all I hear about is death surrounding you."

He slammed his hands down on the console but said nothing. His breath came fast and hard, as if the action had taken all the energy out of him, and he rested his head on his hands, slumping to his knees at the console.

"I watched your mother die," he repeated. "Don't you think, if I knew how to stop something like that, I would?"

She almost wanted to comfort him. Almost, however, was a lot different than wanted. The same repulsed feeling coursed through her. _He's lying. He could have stopped it, and he's lying._

_"_We have to go back."

"We can't."

"There has to be some way! Tell me what happened."

He shook his head. "She's gone, Renee. I don't want to think about her. I'll never get her back."

The repulsion became temporary hatred. "You don't want to think about her? What do you think I do every day? You think I just sit around moping about her or forget about her completely? Do you always think about things in black and white Doctor? I think your new hair is trying to tell you there's a gray area."

She didn't have to see his face to know he was scowling. "There isn't a gray area with me. If I let her... If I let her memory that is, take over, I'll be gone."

"Tell me what happened. Don't think about it, just tell me."

He looked up, confused. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know. Distract yourself. Amy says I get my ADHD from you. It shouldn't be too hard."

Clara came in then. She looked exhausted but she noticed Renee immediately. "I thought I heard you. Where's Elethia?"

Renee didn't want to answer again. The Doctor did it for her. "Dead."

Clara pressed her lips together, her eyes just a little wider than before, almost hiding the purple bruising around them. Renee noticed that there was a hint of a bruise poking out from under her hair as well, a real bruise not like her tired eyes. What had she gone through in prison? "Sorry I brought it up."

Renee wanted the subject changed. "It's okay. Did he ever tell you about my mom?"

"Who's your mom?" Clara asked. She also seemed grateful for the topic change.

"River Song." The empathetic-teacher look was back. "Oh, Renee."

"I know she's dead. Don't tell me that." She didn't mean for it to sound so harsh. She tried to rein in her tone. "Do you know how she died? The Doctor won't tell me. He says he doesn't want to think about it."

She shook her head. "No. But I talked to her. She somehow linked our minds in a psychic connection. She couldn't actually be there. She said she was dead, but she spoke to me."

The Doctor shook. Renee couldn't tell if it was from anger or grief. "How could she do that if she was dead?"

"She's saved somewhere," Clara said. "I don't know how or where."

"The Library," The Doctor said. "She's saved in The Library."

"What library?" She was getting information out of him, and that was all she wanted right now.

"_The _Library. In that time, it's the only one. It's an entire planet with every book archived up to that point."

"Oh!" Clara said. "I found a book on it in the TARDIS library once. Wasn't it built for a little girl?"

The Doctor nodded. "Cal became linked to the hard-drive. Her mind is stored there, and when the occupants were in danger, she saved their minds to the computer too. We got them out, but with a price."

"River," Renee put together.

"It was going to be me. I didn't tell her about it. I knew she'd try to save me if I did, so I had her help someone else, but when she found out what I was doing, she made sure I couldn't do it."

Sometimes, Renee's mother was too selfless for her own good.

"What happened?"

"She died."

Wrong question. She'd shut him down again. "Is she in the computer too?"

"Yes."

"Then we can get her out!" The possibility swirled in her mind, almost making her dizzily giddy. Her mom wouldn't be dead anymore. How many people could say that?

"No. Renee, she's gone. She's not there anymore."

"How do you know that?"

He pointed to Clara. "She talked to River, and after Clara was gone, I did too. When we finished talking, she disappeared."

She flipped the ignition and got the TARDIS moving. She wasn't going to pass up even the smallest of opportunities.

"Renee, it's _not_ possible!" The Doctor insisted. She barely knew a thing about how to drive the TARDIS, but she remembered the very basics. She'd practically memorized the picture that River had drawn. It had changed a bit since his new regeneration, but it was close enough that she could get there.

After it lurched the first time, despite the stabilizers being on, Clara said, "Why don't you just use the psychic autopilot thing?"

"The what?"

"Clara!"

Clara glared at The Doctor. "If there's a chance, why can't she take it? I'd take it if it was Danny or my own mother."

"But there isn't!" he argued.

"It sounds like there is." Renee jumped back in.

He shook his head. "She faded! She faded at Trenzalor!"

"She _disappeared_. Doctor, you said she disappeared. That doesn't mean she died." He looked between them desperately, and Renee remembered something her mother had written again and again in her diary. _He doesn't like endings._

_"_You're scared," she said. "You're scared that next time, she's not going to be so lucky, and you can't stand to think you might have to watch it."

The desperation in his face quickly formed back into anger. "I'm not so easily frightened. She did die. River Song is dead."

Clara turned back to Renee. "Open this part." She pointed to another part of the console close to Renee. "Then, you just put your hands here and think about where you want to go. That's how we found Danny the first time before he... Well, you know where you're going. You'll have better luck."

Renee didn't hesitate. She put both hands onto the gel-like substance and closed her eyes. Every memory she'd gained of her mother passed by, and every word The Doctor had just spoken swirled again and again in her mind. The Library.

Renee had to go to The Library.

She knew the TARDIS would follow her directions. She loved River just as much, if not more, than Renee did, which seemed pretty ridiculous, but she hadn't known her in the time that sh

"No, Renee. This is a bad idea."

"Dad, let me through."

"I told you. This is a bad idea."

"I don't _care_. Are you going to help me or not?" She pushed him aside and exited the TARDIS. Clara followed silently.

When he didn't immediately follow, Renee didn't notice. She was too distracted by the extensive collection in front of her.

Clara too was in awe. She stopped beside Renee with her mouth agape. "It's an English teacher's heaven," she murmured. "Minus one."

"How big _is_ this place?" Renee asked.

The room they were standing in on it's own was enormous. There were bookshelves at least double the girls' sizes, likely much higher, and large, vaguely human shaped statues placed strategically around a wide desk in the center of the room. Renee went to one and brushed her finger against it lightly, looking for dust. She found none.

"Huh," she said.

Suddenly, the spoonlike head turned around to reveal-

River Song's statue faced her daughter with blank eyes. "Are you in need of any assistance?"

Renee felt her face drain of all it's color. Suddenly feeling sick, she gasped and quickly pulled her hand back, stumbling away from her mother's statue.

"Ma'am, are you in need of any assistance?"

The Doctor burst from the TARDIS and turned straight toward the statue. "River!"

His face fell and he came over slowly. Renee was backing from it at a slower pace. Her legs shook. "Are you really her?"

"I am a voice interface," it said. "My appearance was chosen to optimize your experience in The Library. Are you in need of assistance?"

"You're not River?" Renee whispered.

The Doctor was already pointing his sonic at the statue. It buzzed, and the statue shut River's eyes and turned around.

Renee trembled. She couldn't bring herself to move, scared that her legs might give out. "It looked like her," she said, her voice small.

"It was her face," he said. He looked angry again. "Her soul has faded."

"I thought it was in the computer," Renee said. "We need to get her out."

"Wasn't there someone else here?" Clara asked. "You said that a little girl owns The Library."

He nodded. "CAL. Charlotte Abigail Lux."

"How long has she been here?" Renee asked.

"I don't know. A hundred years, maybe?"

"Then River should still be here. CAL watches The Library, right?" Renee faced the ceiling. "Is she still here? Is River Song still here?"

The statue turned back again and Renee covered her eyes so quickly, she didn't see the face at all. Another voice spoke though, and she looked up to find a little girl's face watching her. "River Song has been saved."

"Is she still here?"

"River Song has been saved."

"Is there any way to get her out?"

"River Song has been saved." Renee looked to The Doctor for help. He was already pointing the sonic. "Doctor! Wait, it might give us answers."

"It won't. This is a voice interface. I'll show you where we can really talk to Cal." He soniced the statue and led them to a bigger portion of the library. The girls were still awed at the size of the collection, but Renee was less so now. She was still trying to get a handle on her breathing. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"You okay?" Clara whispered.

"Yeah. Fine." He led them down into a giant control room with thick wires and buttons everywhere. A steam-punk like throne loomed under a flickering, florescent spot light. Upon seeing it, Renee saw him pale, but she pretended not to notice.

He walked over to the single statue in the middle of the room. The little girl's face was on it, her eyes closed. "Charlotte, it's The Doctor."

She opened her eyes. They were much more lively than those of the one upstairs. "Doctor! You're here! River's been waiting for you."

Renee spoke next. "How do we get her out?"

Cal frowned at The Doctor. "I thought you'd been thinking about that. I thought that's why it took so long. She cannot go back into her original body. It's dead."

"Can it be healed?" The Doctor asked.

Cal seemed to consider this for a second. She looked uncertain. "I don't know."

"What happens if it doesn't work? Could you download her again?"

"No. Likely not without something going wrong."

"Can we talk to her?" Renee asked. Cal hesitated a moment, but decided, "I'll have to translate."

Before Renee could speak, The Doctor said, "Tell her I'm here."

Charlotte closed her eyes. When they opened again, she was smiling. "She says, 'Hello, Sweetie."

Renee wondered if The Doctor was going to faint. His face had gone gray. "Doctor?"

"Tell her I love her, and I'm going to get her out." Cal closed her eyes again.'

"Doctor," Clara said, "I thought you said we couldn't help her."

He was already ripping a panel off one wall. Behind it were buttons, switches, and knobs of various sizes. Tiny LED lights blinked various colors and changed in hue and brightness as he started to mess with the controls.

"What are you doing?" Cal asked. Renee looked over to find her looking questioningly at The Doctor.

"Exploring," he said. "Attempting the impossible."

"She says she doesn't want you to," Cal said. "She says the only way for you to do it is to hurt yourself, and she doesn't want that."

"We'll find a way," he said.

"But she said-"

"And I said that we'd find a way!"

Even Renee flinched at that. She was no stranger to anger. She'd gotten a lot of it thrown her way over the years from schoolmates, aliens, friends and her grandparents. The Doctor sounded close to snapping.

Cal closed her eyes again. Renee went over to The Doctor. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to get her out. She's not going to like this, but I'll heal her."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"We'll re-download her."

"Cal said she won't be able to do that."

"She said not without problems. That doesn't mean it's impossible." He pressed another button and turned to her. "I need you to help me."

"With what? Healing her?"

"_No_. Don't use your regeneration energy unless you absolutely have to, and you don't. I meant with the technical stuff." He pointed to Clara. "You need to go back into the TARDIS and bring her closer. I don't know how well this will work, and we might need the med bay."

"Are you sure? I've never flown it alone."

"She'll help you." He wasn't looking at either of them anymore. He was looking at Cal. "Tell her to be ready. I think I've figured it out."

"I can't let her go," Cal said. She sounded sad.

"I know," The Doctor said. "I'll help you."

"You don't understand."

He pointed at Renee again. "You. See that big switch thing there?"

"Is that a technical term?"

"Shut up. See it?"

She nodded. It was a large switch about as long as her forearm with a yellow handle.

"When I tell you, pull it across. Then, hold this button down." He pointed to a thick red button slightly bigger than her palm next to a blinking white light. "Hold it. Don't let it go."

He turned back to the controls in front of him, and Renee found herself scared. She looked over to Clara, hoping she at least wasn't alone in this feeling, but she'd already left. Cal met her eyes, only for a second. They were mourning, too mourning for anyone of her age. Then she closed them.

"Renee, I'm almost ready," The Doctor said. Renee turned back to the controls in front of her.

"Yellow handle, red button," she said.

"Right. Ready?"

She nodded, and he started pressing buttons again.

"Doctor," Cal said. "I didn't mean-"

"Now, Renee."

She didn't have time to question the little girl, though she knew she should. She threw the handle to the side and held the heavy button down.

There was a horrible shrieking noise as The Doctor held down two different buttons and Renee looked at him for answers. He was looking behind her. She turned to see electricity shooting out of the metal throne. It looked like an electric chair. Renee kept holding down the button, but her hands were unsteady, and it took a lot of effort to keep them pressing it. "Doctor, what's going on?"

He said something in a language she'd never spoken but instantly recognized as being Galifreyan. The word itself she didn't know, and she figured it wasn't positive.

A particularly large bolt of electricity zapped the floor hard enough it charred and the light almost blinded Renee. Colored squiggles blocked her vision. They spun around her line of sight and made her dizzy. When they finally cleared enough to see, she saw the blurry outline of a form

"Mom?" she tried to say, but her voice was quiet compared to the loud noises of the machinery in overdrive. She came into focus as the colored lights started to dissipate. She looked shocked and confused and very, very pale, but she was standing.

"Doctor?" she croaked.

Renee almost let go, but The Doctor noticed.

"Not yet," he said. "It's not done."

Suddenly, River's eyes widened and went blank, and she crumpled to the cement floor.


End file.
